Top 10ers Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils headline the Aegon Championships this week at the Queen’s Club, where the four-time champ Roddick takes the favorites position after the withdrawal of defending champion Rafael Nadal.

Nadal withdrew from the event following his exit at Roland Garros, hampered by a knee injury.

Other Top 8 seeded players are Marin Cilic, James Blake, Marat Safin and Mardy Fish.

“It was more or less just a couple of shots that decided the match,” said Novak Djokovic after losing to Nadal 7-6, 7-5 in last year’s final. “I think it could go either way. If I won the first set, I was serving for second set, had many chances. So we are pretty close. You know, on grass we are much closer than on clay.”

It’s going to be a difficult week, trying to watch matches from both Halles and Queens, which is now blue, not red, and looks so strange! Wonder how Gulbis and Cilic will make out on the grass. Also wondering if JMDP is playing a Wimbledon warm up. He has got the game to do well on grass as well, really all surfaces. His performance against Federer on clay really convinced me of his abilities; I had never seen him play quite that well before, though he always matches up well with Murray and his win over Rafa in Miami was also impressive.

I want to see how Murray matches up on Grass. I think he has a game for Grass. We already know how amazing he is on hard courts. It’s hard to tell if you saw him playing on clay, you would not think he is one of the best players. The way he played Gonzalez in RG was so wrong. Amazing how the surface can make a difference to some.

I remember reading one of the interviews from Federer, he said he thinks Murray is even better on Grass. Could it be true? This could be great for him, playing at home and maybe one day winning it.

sar, thanks again. I was hoping Djoko would play doubles at Halle. I think it really helped him play into form on clay by playing doubles at Monte Carlo. And grass is an even shorter season. Good luck to him here – fingers crossed.

I’d like Djoko to win or at least make the finals of Halle, and I would like one of the Andys, Roddick or Murray, to win Queens.

Thanks Jane, i will follow up the doubles score.
vared, who said abot Roddick being a lesser player..I just said i think Murray will win because he is playing at home. Now..if you want to put words for me then go ahead do it.

I just read that Uncle Toni isn’t optimistic about Nadal’s chances of playing at Wimbledon. I want Federer to win it and all, but Nadal not playing at all is absolutely terrible. I’m sure a Nadal fan wouldn’t want Federer to completely miss whatever slam that Nadal can win. And this isn’t about Federer, it’s about tennis. For the world number 1 and defending champion and current AO champ to miss Wimbledon would be absolutely terrible. I don’t care enough about Queens and Nadal missing that, but I really hope he gets well in time for Wimbledon. Best wishes to Nadal and his team.

I’m clearly rooting for Roddick to win at Queens, not coz of I hate Murray or am afraid that his confidence will sore too much making him invincible at Wimbledon or all that. I want Roddick to win for one simple reason, he’s my most fav guy after Fed! Go dear Roddick, keep fighting and give your best to win not only Queens, but also Wimbledon! Please forget who is on the other side of the net, coz then I believe that you can take them down! Go Roddick, my dear friend, my best wishes are always with you from now onwards, in every grass season, till the day you play your last match(which of course I won’t like to come anytime soon)! God bless you!

Well, I sincerely hope for Rafa to recover quickly so that he’ll be able to play Wimbledon or I’d be terribly sad about him missing Wimbledon, not that Wimbledon won’t miss him! If Rafa doesn’t play at this year’s Wimbledon, then it’ll be a huge loss for tennis! Oh my God, Wimbledon will loose some of its much welcome sheen in the absence of Rafa! How dare the team Rafa allow him play at the worthless tournaments? Just too awful if it happens…… :-(

I don’t understand. Nadal said he didn’t wanna play Madrid because he thought it’d be bad for his FO preparation. He was spot on. Why in the hell did he play in Madrid then? First of all, what the hell was the point of playing Rotterdam. What in the hell did that give him? I mean he got another win over Tsonga and gave Murray another win over him. Was it necessary? I just don’t understand what his team is thinking.

I think Rafa’s morale is at a low. He didn’t get number 5. He can use the few weeks before Wimbledon to work himself back up. He has other prospective titles to gain. He should be thinking about that – the second half of the season: Wimbledon, U.S. Open, Masters Cup. It’s all completely within his grasp. He mustn’t look back.

I think Soderling will gain a lot of confidence next time when he plays Rafa. By beating him on clay, he would think he can beat Rafa anywhere. His game matches up well with Rafa’s game. Unfortunately for Rafa, I would not be surprised if Soderling wins Rafa again, lets hope its not in the big stage.

huh: Murray is my favorite player after Federer, I love watching him; I think he is fantastic unless when he plays Federer ofcourse.

I would be shocked if Nadal didn’t play Wimbledon. At the end of 2007 I think Toni Nadal said he had career threatening foot problems, but then went out and had the best year of his career, so hopefully this is all much ado about nothing…again.

sansentionalsafin; I think Rafa felt obliged to play Madrid and Barcelona. It’s his country and hometown. He has the most support there, same as federer playing Basel. Djoko playing Belgrade and Murray wimby and Queens. I agree about Rotterdam though especially after winning AO, does not make sense to play there. But Nadal did very well before the FO..winning almost 85% of all the tournaments he entered. He was so far away in the points it looks like no one will catch him, almost 4000 points.

But then Tennis is the strange game, now Federer is only 1000 points in championship race behind Nadal, by winning Madrid and FO. Amazing! Here is the link.

I thought Rafa’s poor scheduling would come back to hurt him one day and sadly, I was right. He played too many clay court tournaments this year (and in previous years) when really all he needed to do was play the mandatories and then rest up for the French, and try not to flame out later in the year like he had a tendency to do in the past.

I know that Rafa is a bull and as fit as any guy on tour, but tennis is a sport that’s very hard on the body regardless of your style of play. And when you mix in the fact that he plays such a demanding returning style with long rallies, he really needs to learn how to pace himself better and insist on proper support for these decisions from his team.

The one thing that Federer has always focused on (and this is not a dig at Rafa or an attempt to contrast the 2 in a negative way), is that he has always worked really hard to get his schedule the way he likes it. He’s decreased the number of tournaments that he plays and allows his body time to recover. Granted, Federer is several years older, but I recall him talking about the importance of scheduling way back in 2004 when he had started to win more titles.

Hi Kimmi, Murray is a phenomenal player, no doubt about it but I think he has to win a GS soon it just was the right time for his breakthrough at the AO. But his illness combined with Hot Verdasco took that chance away from him. Unfortunately that was the right time for him to make his mark, but as some’d say, it wasn’t meant to be then. I was also hoping to see him defeat Rafa in the semi of AO 09! Anyway I hope that Murray would sooner than later fulfil your wish of seeing him winning GS(if that’s what you really wish!) ;-)

**But his [Murray] illness combined with Hot Verdasco took that chance away from him***

huh: that shows how difficult the GSs are, there is always a hot player in the draw. Thats why its amazing when I think of 20 semi for federer. I am sure he must have met a few hot players on the way. Amazing. Yes, it my wish to see Murray win a slam.

Cindy_Brady, LOL, I think with the Rafa knees problem, he will need a little easier draw at wimbledon. To meet Soderling again will be a very tough draw for him

If Rafa pulls out of Wimbledon, there is no doubt the knee problem is serious. If he doesn’t, it’s still debatable as to how serious it is and/or was.. And I don’t think we can go by Fed’s comments on the matter; I don’t think he can really “know” whether or not Rafa’s in pain. Only Rafa can know that, and those to whom he’s closest.

I’d like to reiterate that I’m not a Nadal fan, but in fairness to him, I’d like to ask a question: Whatever happenend to Fed’s back problem? It seems to have quietly disappeared as fast as it came, now that he’s winning. Not to mention the mono, that is so skilfully slipped in as an after-thought when all else fails in the form of rationalizations for Fed’s many losses prior to Madrid. Some of you most probably would not like to hear this, but I for one didn’t or don’t buy Fed’s medical excuses for his DC and Dubai pull-out and his many losses prior to his Madrid and FO wins. I laugh at Johnnie Mac and some of the other commentators, writers, even here on Tennis.X, and posters, who were quick to pull out the ever-loving/faithful Fed mono and sore back card when he was losing, but nary a word now. I suppose they are all suffering from a case of selective Alzheimer’s now.

The same yardstick posters are using to discredit the validity of Nadal’s knee problem for pulling out of Queens and possibly Wimby, is the same one that should be applied to Federer’s mono and/or back problems, don’t you thing? Why is it that some are so eager to latch onto ANYTHING to validate Federer’s losses and or pulling out of tournaments, e.g., Dubai and Davis cup, but those same people are coming down hard on Nadal, stating he’s engaging in PR ploys to fool his opponents and the tennis world, not to mention his being perceived as a sore loser for losing to Federer at Madrid and Soderling at the FO, and wanting to asterisk their wins. I’ve said this many times, in response to statements made on other players’ wins when they were discredited, and I’ll say it again: a win is a win, and no one can take that stat away. How the win came about is a moot argument, because the end result, it’s still a win.

I’d like for some of you to find and read Federer’s many pressers whenever he loses, and you’ll find hard evidence that Federer does employ the services of his PR team extensively. hence, if Nadal and his team are doing the same, what’s the big deal?

I was surprised to read, Federer’s statement re his sentiments on Nadal not playing at the final, albeit he was being truthful, but I don’t believe Sampras, Laver, or most of the past champions would have stated they didn’t ‘really miss’ Nadal’s presence at the final. Even if a white lie were necessary, I believe the ever touted ‘graceful’ Federer should have replied with much more tact and class. It’s almost similar to his response about not watching the AO when he lost to Djokovic. His comments at the AO were without a doubt ‘sour grapes’ but I still don’t understand his FO comments. I know some posters talk about these guys as being ‘good friends’, well hello, a ‘good friend’ wouldn’t say he wouldn’t miss his friend and rival. I’d say maybe they are acquaintances, but good friends, NO! A good friend is someone you’d invite to your wedding, did Federer invite Nadal to his wedding? NO. Remember this, there aren’t any good friends in business, and tenis players are in the sport to earn money. Whenever or wherever money is involves, friendship takes a back seat. And, you can take that to the bank!

I suppose the severity of Nadal’s knee problems and the debate as to the validity of his Uncles/PR team’s statements will culminate if and when Nadal pulls out of Wimby. Then there would definitely be a valid reason. I doubt that are any GS defending champions who would not want to defend their title.

I’ve asked you before, and I don’t know whether you’ve seen my comments, and chose not to answer, and if you choose not to answer again, I’ll get the picture and understand. Now that’s out of the way, my curiosity is getting th better of me, and I just gotta know, call it enquiring minds want to know.

Question: Who is your favourite player? You’ve confused the hell outta me with your comments over the past month ever since Federer won Madrid to be specific. You’ve gone from bashing Federer, to praising Nadal, then bashing nadal, accusing him of using drugs, praising his game, then bashing his game, et. al., and now we’ve come full circle, you’re praising Federer and bashing Nadal. What’s really going on? As I said, enquiring minds, or more appropriately, this enquiring mind wants to know, because I’m confused beyond words. I’m beginning to add an “Et tu brutus”. I look forward to a reply and thanks.

Vared, Murray is playing at home, so I think it will be very difficult for Roddick. It looks like a Murray win here

Kimmin, Maybe so, do you think he’ll win Wimbledon then since it’s at home? Or do you feel Roddick is just a lesser player than Fed,Nadal, Djokovic.

vared, who said abot Roddick being a lesser player..I just said i think Murray will win because he is playing at home. Now..if you want to put words for me then go ahead do it.

KIMMIE:This is a two part question. Here’s one. If Murray is playing at home in Queens England, you say he has the win. Now, Wimbledon is also the home of Murray. So again the question is, do you think he’ll win Wimbledon since it is in Murray’s home? Yes or no.

Who is this Ram guy Roddick teamed up with to play doubles? I wonder if Andy was helping the young-man, because he does that kind of stuff at times, and would explain why Roddick didn’t partner with Fish. Ram/Roddick got a very tough draw in Hewitt/Murray for a first round and lost by two tie-break points. initially, when I looked at the draw I thought ‘no way is Andy going to pull this one out’. And, sad to say for one time I wish I wasn’t right.

“If Rafa pulls out of Wimbledon, there is no doubt the knee problem is serious. If he doesn’t, it’s still debatable as to how serious it is and/or was.. And I don’t think we can go by Fed’s comments on the matter; I don’t think he can really “know” whether or not Rafa’s in pain. Only Rafa can know that, and those to whom he’s closest.” — jane

If Federer nor his his doctors, couldn’t diagnose Fed’s mono case, until it was supposedly over, how is it possible for him to know the extent of Nadal’s pain? this is way to ludicrous!! LOL.

…Von, I’m unsure of the mono thing, so I’m not gonna talk about that. But the back problem was pretty obvious. Not just the poor excuse of a serve he showed in the AO, but at the end of last year, Federer called the trainer because of his back. When has Federer ever called out the trainer? And gotten a massage?? Federer skipped Dubai and DC maybe because of both mental and physical fatigue. His back was an issue but I’m sure he was mentally beaten down, too. But what excuses did he come up with for the last few months? He didn’t say he lost to Murray and Djokovic and even Wawrinka because of his back. He said he didn’t know why he crumbled against them. Even if he knows, it’s probably mental and he doesn’t wanna admit it. He didn’t use any mono or back excuse for that.

vared; I will try to answer u r two part alert…alert….alert…questions; these are very simple questions.

1. Queens is a small tournament, where the very top players are not playing. That makes Murray an overwhelming favorite. Second because he is playing at home, the crowd will help to pull him thru and third because he has 6-2 H2H against Roddick. Roddick may pull a win but Murray is the favorite.

2. Wimbledon is another animal. Nadal and Fed who has won 17 out of past 19 slams will be playing, and also it is best of 5 sets, as much as I want Murray to win, I will be realistic. He has not won a GS before but he is getting close, if the draw opens up for him like Federer in the FO who knows, if the draw opens up for Roddick too who knows. But how nice will it be for Murray to win at home, the last British to win Wimbledon was…I read it somewhere 1936 or somewhere near that.

And vared, I am glad in the last few days you have stopped “Murray will be # 1 at the end of year” comment. It was starting to get very old.

That’s Andy Ram; he’s a doubles player, plays with Mirnyi; they are currently ranked #5 in the doubles rankings.

And I agree with the parallels you’ve made between Nadal’s knees and Fed’s mono & back; if you’re going to discredit one guy’s illness/injury then it could also discredit the other guy’s illness.

I think we should take both at their words and leave it at that. Or./ we should doubt and call into question both of their injuries/illnesses, suggesting that both were PR stunts and/or blown out of proportion to compensate or justify losses.

In other words, it works both ways. There shouldn’t be double standards with conduct. Why should one player be given a pass while another is not?

I feel the back problem was legit. Was it as severe as Nadal’s knee problems have been or could potentially be? I don’t think so, but it did seem to limit his movement. The fact that he did call an injury time out speaks volumes. Have you ever seem Federer do that before in a match? He doesn’t have a history of injury time-outs for suspected gamesmanship reasons, so I’m thinking his back must have really been bothering him. I don’t feel, though, that it affected his play for a significant period of time, though, so I don’t think it can be used as an excuse for his performances at other tourneys.

As for the mono – I posted something similar to this when the debate/controversy about Federer having mono was going around. As a medical doctor I have some knowledge about this, but obviously, I’m not Federer’s personal doctor so only he and his medical team know exactly what went down, but this is my opinion on this matter…

Mono is a tough thing to diagnose based on symptoms alone. If the symptoms are not blatantly obvious, it can often be missed and the appropriate confirmative lab tests will not be ordered until everything else has been ruled out first. He claims he was having gastroenteritis-type symptoms with vomiting and diarrhea. As a GP, mono would certainly not be the first thing that I would test for in that case. As far as experiencing fatigue and a weakened immune system (Federer mentioned something about being more tired and getting colds more frequently than is usual for him), there are also a multitude of different things that could cause that and mono is usually not done as a general screen, unless other people in close contact with him (e.g. Mirka, family, coaching/training team, etc.) had already been confirmed as having mono or were showing mono-like symptoms. And finally, even if the monospot test was run, sometimes the test can come back as a false negative and it’s only on a repeat test, that the result comes up.

Mono is a tricky virus. It can be present in the system but be asymptomatic. It can make you full-blown, sick-as-a-dog for days or weeks and then suddenly resolve and you feel fit as a fiddle again. It can resolve for a period of time and return full-force again weeks, months, even years later. It can stay in your system and you can be functional but slightly less than 100%. There are just so many ways that this illness can present. If Federer did have mono, the fact that he was able to play at the level that he did, is extraordinary (but not impossible).

In summation, this doesn’t really confirm if Federer had mono or not – he and his docs are the only ones who would know 100%. But when it comes to athletes (and some may think me naive), I trust them unless they have lied about something that would make me doubt them in the future. I don’t believe Federer has a history of lying (which I think is different than making excuses for things – but that’s beside the point) so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I thought you were not like one of those obnoxious nadal fans. Well guess wat…I’m sure of the mono thing. Jim Courier noticed the improved movement of fed in AO 09 compared to AO 08. Obviously he had slow movement in AO 08 not because he was lazy in practise but because of mono. Plus he was always sweating profusely during matches during the early 08 season. Look it doesnt matter whether people believe it or not. Upto them. If someone hates federer then they’ll come up with all sorts of excuses to hate him and not give him credit for anything and its the opposite when someone likes federer as well. So why dont we just look at the facts objectively.

I don’t think I’m behaving like an obnoxious Nadal fan by saying that Nadal’s knee problem shouldn’t be discredited? I’m just making a comparison, that if people believed Federer had mono and a back problem then they should be willing to accept that Nadal genuinely has a knee problem. Don’t you think that it’s kinda ludicrous for Nadal’s team to want to go to the extreme by saying he might not play at Wimbledon just to discredit Fed’s and Soderling’s wins, as some posters have implied?

This is what I said:

“The same yardstick posters are using to discredit the validity of Nadal’s knee problem for pulling out of Queens and possibly Wimby, is the same one that should be applied to Federer’s mono and/or back problems, don’t you thing? Why is it that some are so eager to latch onto ANYTHING to validate Federer’s losses and or pulling out of tournaments, e.g., Dubai and Davis cup, but those same people are coming down hard on Nadal, stating he’s engaging in PR ploys to fool his opponents and the tennis world, not to mention his being perceived as a sore loser for losing to Federer at Madrid and Soderling at the FO, and wanting to asterisk their wins.”

I further stated: “I’ve said this many times, in response to statements made on other players’ wins when they were discredited, and I’ll say it again: a win is a win, and no one can take that stat away. How the win came about is a moot argument, because the end result, it’s still a win.”

Hence Ryan, if you look at my statement, you’ll see I’m being fair to Fed and Soderling by stating to anyone who want to discredit their wins by placing an asterisk, that a win is a win, no matter which way we look at it, and both gus won fair and square. I think I’m being extremely fair and impartial.

“If someone hates federer then they’ll come up with all sorts of excuses to hate him and not give him credit for anything and its the opposite when someone likes federer as well. So why dont we just look at the facts objectively.”

Please tell me if anything I’ve said is hateful, and if so, show me the perceived hate. I’m not into the whole hate thing, and you of all people should know that I don’t like to see people being hateful. How many times have I not given kudos to Fed?

As i said, the mono thing is very unclear and neither Fed nor his doctors seemed to know when it started. No Fed didn’t come and say he lost due to his back, but I’ve heard him state that his back is sore when he was interviewed by some of the commentators at court-side in Miami and IW.

I stated: “I laugh at Johnnie Mac and some of the other commentators, writers, even here on Tennis.X, and posters, who were quick to pull out the ever-loving/faithful Fed mono and sore back card when he was losing, but nary a word now. I suppose they are all suffering from a case of selective Alzheimer’s now.”

In essence, what I’m saying is that the posters and commentators were making excuses for Fed’s losses, but now that he’s winning, they have stopped talking of the back problems, especially Johnnie Mac, and it’s all forgotten. However, it’s some of those same posters that are questioning Nadal’s knee issues, and to me it’s unfair, because if we believe one player, we should believe all of them. Yes? No?

Eventhough a win is a win , if we look at it subjectively there is a difference between winning wen both players are fit and wen one of them or both are not.I do agree maybe nadal did have knee problems during the french.I’m not taking anything away from him.But I’m sure federer or nadal dont need to fabricate stories to cover up their losses. I believe that they have a lot of class and they dont need to resort to djoker like antics to take credit away from their opponents. Wen it comes to the tennis fans in general they are very pro federer. This could be one of the reasons why nadal’s knee problems are overlooked.
Anyway another issue that I would like to mention is that this FO victory for federer could change up the dynamics of the federer nadal rivalry from now on. Until now federer was the guy who had something to prove and nadal was the guy trying to stop him. The pressure was all on federer.But from now on its nadal who is being hunted and federer will be the hunter. Its funny the way the tables have turned.

Well, Von, I can’t argue with that. You’re actually very right. As other people have already said, there shouldn’t be a double standard. I don’t think it was his back that had him lose the last few months. I know his serve was bad at the AO, especially in the final, but he still took Nadal to 5 and it was a mental meltdown that lost him that match. As for Nadal’s knees, he’s had problems before. Last year he pulled out of a bunch of events at the end of the year, including DC that means a lot to him. He’s pulled out of the year-ending events several times in his career. My complaint is that if his knees are so bad, why the hell does he continue with these awful schedules. What’s more important, playing a hometown event or salvaging your body in order to continue your incredible career? I’m not a Nadal fan but I don’t want to see him drop out of Wimbledon and start fading away while he’s NUMBER 1! That would be just awful.

Now if it comes to using Nadal’s knees as an excuse for his losses, I believe it. He hasn’t looked great all clay season. I don’t know why he stopped taping his knees, but he looked out of it. Even against Soderling, not to take away from his win, but Nadal did not look like he was at his best at all. Sure you can argue that Soderling simply didn’t let Nadal play his best, but Nadal just packed it in in that 4th set. He usually fights a LOT harder than that. But what are you gonna do?

“But from now on its nadal who is being hunted and federer will be the hunter. Its funny the way the tables have turned.”

There you go!! A seismic shift is ocurring. Prior to winning the FO, Fed was operating on the edge of effectiveness, and now that he’s won the FO, that seismic shift has now placed him operating as fully effective. Howdya like them apples? Terrific, yes, no?

“My complaint is that if his knees are so bad, why the hell does he continue with these awful schedules. What’s more important, playing a hometown event or salvaging your body in order to continue your incredible career? I’m not a Nadal fan but I don’t want to see him drop out of Wimbledon and start fading away while he’s NUMBER 1! That would be just awful.”

Because he’s a stubborn, and probably self-opinionated 22-year-old who thinks he knows everything. Does he remind you of someone else, yourself perhaps? LOL. He reminds me of my son, who implies that I don’t know anything, even though I have a higher IQ than he does. Ahh, the travails of raising a young male are too numerous to mention. Maybe your parents are saying their prayers everyday now that you’re in college, LOL.

Thanks for an in-depth mono analysis. I think Fed is extremely lucky to have had a mild case, because look at Ancic. My daughter had mono and her doctor ordered lab work on her first visit. At that time she had a fever and couldn’t stay awake, sleeping as many as 18 hours per day. The tests were confirmed on December 24th, which means I had a good Christmas and was not left wondering what was wrong with my kid.

With respect to the back, that’s another tricky one, due to inconclusive diagnosis from MRIs, etc., except for disc herniation, so yes, Fed should be given the benefit of the doubt. However, there was some suspicion from Sean and some posters that if Fed pulled out of Dubai and Davis Cup, why was he practising in Dubai? But, it’s now a moot subject and only Fed has the answers.

Murray is a better player than Roddick. And he can beat Nadal and Federer (especially Federer). But as of right now, Murray has a win over Roddick on grass, but is 0-1 against Nadal and has yet to play Federer. But this is grass. I don’t see Federer giving up any ground to Murray on grass, not yet.

Von:
“Thanks for an in-depth mono analysis. I think Fed is extremely lucky to have had a mild case, because look at Ancic. My daughter had mono and her doctor ordered lab work on her first visit. At that time she had a fever and couldn’t stay awake, sleeping as many as 18 hours per day. The tests were confirmed on December 24th, which means I had a good Christmas and was not left wondering what was wrong with my kid.”

I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s experience with mono but I hope that she’s doing much better now and has fully recovered :) The doctor did a great job picking it up. Although, granted, the fact that she was spiking a fever and sleeping for the majority of the day would have been a huge clue. Federer’s doctors may not have had those obvious symptoms or maybe we can chalk it up to simple human error? Unfortunately, doctors sometimes make mistakes and catch things later than they should.

I think the accusations that Nadal is faking or playing up his knee injuries are laughable. I hadn’t realized that people were insinuating that. I always take an athletes claims as the truth when it comes to injuries, unless they give me a reason to doubt them. Djokovic as far as calling injury time outs would be someone I would doubt (although, he has toned that down recently which is good)…but even in his case, if he claimed a serious injury like a knee or back and had to pull out a tourney because of it, I would probably still believe him.

I think it’s dumb to question Nadal’s knee injury claim. He’s pulled out of Queens! Sure you can say it’s just a 250 level event, but he is the defending champ and it’s the only grass matches he can get before Wimbledon, where he’s always defending champ. Maybe Uncle Toni is over exaggerating by saying Nadal is likely to miss Wimbledon, or maybe he’s not. Either way, it’s Toni who said that, not Nadal. Nadal has been pretty quiet actually. But we will know for sure tomorrow or Wednesday. If Nadal has to pull out of Wimbledon, then there’s no way anyone could possibly say he’s just playing with Federer’s or who ever else’s heads.

SS
maybe you should write a skit for Fed too!
oh my back, ….you know, …my back….I am pulling out of Davis Cup and Dubai, yes Switzerland may lose, but …my back…but I am practicing in Dubai and will visit the players’ party…Ouch my back! ( I reserve the mono one for later)

“So you lost in the AO final but you’ve got a big DC tie coming up and there’s Dubai where you’ve had a lot of success over the years”

Federer: “Well yeah the final was a pity, you know, Rafa played fantastic but I — OWWW — there it is again, my back, you know. OWWWW my back is flaring up again, just like in the final where I couldn’t find rhythm on my serve because of — OWWWW — you know. It’s a pity but I have to pull out of Dubai and DC because I need to recover my head… I mean by back, yeah it’s my back… OWWwww… it’s a pity.”

Hello all
Can I interject something here? Since everyone is talking about Roger’s mono, here is a video of how he was playing against Novak at AO semis at the height of his illness. It’s just the highlights but he was moving very well. Really like a gazelle doing his ballet moves. Quick footwork and not sluggish at all. People I have known with mono cannot even get out of bed for weeks or months.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNlyrcsUDBw

Sar: Please see my comments above regarding mono and the different manifestations. Everyone experiences mono symptoms differently. Some patients are completely bed-ridden; others can maintain relatively normal lives; high-performance athletes who are accustomed to expending massive amounts of energy can push themselves to continue exercising even while having mono (although, I advise against this because of the risk of splenic rupture).

The fact that he was able to play a decent match despite having mono (which at that point was undiagnosed according to Federer) speaks wonders about his immune system and physical conditioning. I did notice during that match that he was sweating quite heavily compared to how he usually looks during matches, which may have been a sign that something was “off”.

Good point sensationalsafin – Nadal hasn’t said anything either way about his knees. It’s all coming from Uncle Toni so far. Here’s hoping that everything is okay and it isn’t anything serious.

Federer played very well throughout the AO in 2008. He played great matches in the first two rounds, pummeling the competition, even toying with Santoro; then he had a tough one against Tipsy, but he served out of his skull in that match – 39 aces!!; then he had straight setters against both Blake and Berdych. Djoko outplayed him. His mono was obviously very mild for him to play a slam and do that well against quality players. The only symptom might’ve been sweating. But his movement was good and his shots were excellent as usual.

Thanks for those highlights sar – fun to watch indeed. I think Djoko should rewatch that match a few times. He played with such accuracy and confidence in that match.

True…his serves and returns were unbelievable. But anyone can outplay anybody else on a given day especially wen there is no pressure. I dont think djok has successfully defended any title till now.Kohlschreiber outplayed djoko in the french. That still doesnt mean that kohlschreiber is the better player overall coz its just 1 match.So overall Fed is still a better player than djokovic….case closed.

Kimmi,
It is very hard. I am just crossing my fingers that the injury is not too bad. Wimbledon, etc…I can’t even think about!

Sar,
He moves well, but I remember that he had lost weight and he was sweating ( usually he does not ). Usually they ban all physical activities for people with mono because of the danger to the speleen. So he probably risked a lot playing tennis while having mono.

Well, actually few except the Roger fans were/are believing Fed to be true about his mononucleosis and/or back problems. But they would always be ready to drag Fed into conversation, even though it might have something exclusively to do about Rada only. Fed’s to be for example be doubted when he says that he has back problems; but even when there is no trace to be found of even a smoke of any physical problem in any stage of a tournament for Rafa while playing, concern has to be shown there for Rafa by jumping into the scene after every match Rafa plays, and effort has gotta be made to force on those whose fav is not Rafa by any means by saying things like “I hope Rafa’s knees are ok!”, not only by the fans of Rafa but ironically by the fans of every other guy on the ATP tour. I’m thnking why is this going on? Because it’s basically and probably a struggle between pro-Feds and un/anti-Feds! It’s just a pathetic situation. Now Fed voicing his opinion about the recent situation of Rafa has also to be examined word by word and it seems like Fed fans would actually have to wait for a clean cheat/sensor each time Fed says something about anyone! And not only this, Fed’s grace is also to be questioned time and again, ain’t it? Ok ok, whatevah ye liketh! And the question here is not about whether or not Rafa has a knee problem, but it is rather about the extent of his seriousness. I hope it’s not as serious as Uncle Tony claims coz then we are in for a major loss at Wimbledon if it’s true. However we cannot prevent anyone from saying that Rafa’s knee issues may be being blown out of proportion, even if he is a Rafa basher type of person. Again why? Coz Djoko fans also made a big and concerted effort last year to make the tennis fans accept that mono had nothing to do with Fed’s performance at AO 2008, but most importantly the validity of this logic would also be questioned by Fed fans and rightfully so, not of course for the sake of merely making an effort to refute it but also for the sake of really finding out the strength behind this argument. Rafa fans also had joined the debate then giving there their twocents on the Fed Mono issue. If Rafa fans question the truth of Fded’s claim then most of the Murray/Djoko fans surely throw all their weight behind Rafa fans and Fed fans had to endure this struggle all by themselves coz none would side with them. But thankfully Fed fans’ twocents has managed to keep the twocents of the other guys at check, and this makes things interesting and close with no clear winner except those losers who don’t want to listen Fed’s problems and/or others’ for that matter or perceive it wrongly in their narrow brains. In fact Fed/others doesn’t needa satisfy all in their short life and all that they truly care about their fans is, let me not be honest to state it!

If he truly has bad knees, they will only get worse through time. Even with surgery and the best rehab, knees slowly deteriorate and limit movement. Rafa makes a living off of running and defense. The up coming hard courts will only make it worse.

Also, Soderling laid down the blue print on how to beat Rafa, even on clay. The flat power hitters will feast on Rafa’s high top spin shots with Rafa’s limited movement. He won’t be able to track them down so easily. Yes, I smell a shortened career for Rafael Nadal. Too bad Zola.

Cindy and all
My understanding of it all is this:You need more than a flat-hitter to beat Nadal otherwise Fed would have done that many,many times before. You need height to handle the top-spin. A height of 6’4 or more like a Soderling who is 6’4.The ball rises to the tall players strike zone. Players like Fed, Djoko and Murray have more trouble with that since they are around 6’1 6’2. Then you need to keep up with him for hours. You cannot be tentative and miss an offensive opening. Everything must click not just the flat-hitting alone. And as Ryan just said, anyone can outplay anybody else on a given day and using his Djok/Kohlschreiber comparison he says basically just because Soderling beat him in one match doesn’t make him the better player. That’s just my opinion.

I agree: flat-hitting alone won’t be the new recipe with which to beat Nadal; it’s been used before to good and not so good results. Players like Blake, Berdych, Youzhny, and Tsonga have all used the flat hitting, go-for-broke style, and sometimes it has worked. But typically Nadal has found a way to turn those H2H’s with those players around. He’s nothing if not a learner.

I actually think a player like Murray, who mixes things up a lot and uses the entire court (similar to Fed), might trouble Nadal more in the future. I am not sure , but it’s a thought.

huh – as to the whole “whose telling the truth about injuries and illnesses” I think we should trust that both Fed and Nadal were telling the truth. And maybe their illness and injury wasn’t quite as bad as it was made out to be, or maybe they’re just very good athletes are were able to play through it. But both guys should be given the same benefit of the doubt.

Ryan – I think your assessment is fair. So far, Fed is the better player than Djoko. But on any given day Djoko can beat Fed fair and square in my opinion. It just depends on form. But clearly Fed has been a much more consistent competitor. I am not going to argue the facts! :)

If Djokovic can regain the form he had in the beginning of 08 and win a few big titles over some of the top players, then it will shut everyone up about Djokovic. I don’t care if Federer had mono or not, Djokovic was on fire. And not Soderling/Tsonga/Gonzo fire, but legit top 3 someday-number-1 fire. Like Federer, Djokovic is a confidence player and he needs to get that cockiness back. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Federer and Djokovic play each other when they were at their absolute best. We saw Safin and Federer do it and look how epic that was. I’d expect something like that from Djo-Fed, with the winner being whoever gets a little luckier on a point or two. Still, I don’t care about their rivalry as much as I care about Djokovic-Murray. Djokovic needs to step up his game because there’s no reason for him to be going down so easily to Murray all the time. These two play such similar yet different games, they should be having epic clashes all the time.

Flat hitting works when it’s out of this world flat hitting like Tsonga, Blake, Gonzo, and Soderling. When their levels aren’t at an all time high, they lose to Nadal.

“After the appropriate tests (MRI, Ultrasound scans and gammagraphy) Mr. Rafael Nadal suffers from insertion tendonitis in the superior end of both kneecaps with a light osseous edema.”
But Nadal will travel to London on June 16, so no withdrawal yet, and hopefully never.http://www.rafaelnadal.com/nadal/en/home

Tennis Freak Says:
“After the appropriate tests (MRI, Ultrasound scans and gammagraphy) Mr. Rafael Nadal suffers from insertion tendonitis in the superior end of both kneecaps with a light osseous edema.”
But Nadal will travel to London on June 16, so no withdrawal yet,”
I was expecting exactly the same thing.

Thanks for the update re:Nadal’s knees. Looks like it’s bad but not the most horrible situation in the world. Definitely treatable by the time Wimbledon rolls around (but potentially at a cost down the road if he pushes himself to come back too soon). It’s not a career-ender at this point by any means, but if he doesn’t get this under control, this injury can recur and the frequent inflammation can cause significant cartilage destruction which could be a career-ender at some point.

vared: He does tend to do that – not sure if it is gamesmanship or not. He picked Davydenko as his fave after Rafa lost and guess what happened to Davydenko in the next round? He was booted by Soderling in straight sets! It’s like the Borg curse – whoever Borg picks as his favourite never seems to win the title, either.

Mina, “whoever Borg picks as his favourite never seems to win the title, either.” I think Borg got his Wimbledon pick right last year; I am almost positive he picked Rafa as the favorite to win. I wonder if all the pundits will go with Roger this year, what with coming off the FO title, having less pressure, and also Rafa’s knees being questionable. And I don’t mean the bookies, I mean the commentators, ex players and so forth; I like hearing their picks even if they’re often wrong.

“vared: He does tend to do that – not sure if it is gamesmanship or not. He picked Davydenko as his fave after Rafa lost and guess what happened to Davydenko in the next round? He was booted by Soderling in straight sets! It’s like the Borg curse – whoever Borg picks as his favourite never seems to win the title, either.”

Oh my, another hex on Murray. For a while Sean was the jinxer, but he redeemed himself during the FO. But Borg, is definitely the worst of all. LOL.

Jane – yes, you are right. Borg did pick Rafa to win in 2008. Perhaps his curse only holds true if you are trying to break one of his records – as Federer tried to do last year at Wimby and Rafa tried to do this year at RG. Lol! But it just goes to show how hard those consecutive Slam records are to break, no matter how amazing a player you are.

I think it’s going to be fairly evenly split down the middle as far as predictions for Wimbledon – assuming (fingers-crossed) that Rafa is healthy enough to play. The bigger question is would any of the commentators pick anyone OTHER than Nadal or Federer for the win?

“The bigger question is would any of the commentators pick anyone OTHER than Nadal or Federer for the win?”

True, but I think there will be a few “odd ones out” so to speak. I would think at least one person will pick Murray. He’s due to win a slam, it’s his “home” court, grass is one of his better surfaces, etc.

Vared, I think it’s a mix of Fed’s honest assessment and pressure tactics. However don’t think of Murray as just another guy on tour, he’s very very strong and he may prove himself sooner than we expect. And FED KNOWS IT.

V interesting quote from Andy R in Guardian today 10/06 re Rafa, “I’ve had tendinitis for years and years and years and years. It’s kind of a fancy term for overuse. I don’t think in my mind I ever thought his Wimbledon defence was in jeopardy. Rafa has had tendinitis for a long time and he’s won grand slams while he’s had it. I’m certainly not going to underestimate Rafa. I think he’s going to be there…..”
A couple of things come to mind. Now I know Andy’s game is not as dependant on his knees as Rafa’s but from his quote and others it’s clear to me all sportsmen/women have injuries and play through them to a certain extent, with a certain amount of pain. Now I never knew, I know you did von, about Andy’s knees but the whole world has known about Rafa’s for ages so what’s going on now? It seems to me either Cindy-brady may be right or that Rafa’s got a more serious problem that they’re not disclosing. Pat Cash intimated as much on beeb yesterday. Just a thought.
Oh no von! not a hex on Andy M, can’t stand the tension!

margot – Andy M too has bum knees, or the one with the split cap anyhow. I agree with you; I think they all play with injuries or “weak” spots and these simply flare up from time to time, especially when they’ve had a number of deep runs into consecutive events. Hopefully these guys are at their best for Wimbledon.

BTW, are you going? Did you get tickets? What about Queens? Are you going to any of those matches?

I think we have to give Nadal the benefit of the doubt. I know some people have a lower threshold for pain, while others seem to be able to handle pain much better, and also learn to live with it where it’s accepted as “it comes with the territory”. Additionally, some feel better talking about their difficulties, while others prefer to hold it in. I’d say it’s all dependent on the individual, and perhaps in Nadal’s case, he feels better talking about his pain.

I get the impression that his Uncle Toni seems to have a flair for the dramatics, and also likes to shield his nephew from the press as much as possible. Hence, if Uncle Toni addresses the problems beforehand, then Nadal has an easier time with the press when he faces them, and does not get bombarded with the same questions repeatedly.

I’m hoping both Andys do well at Wimbles. Last year was a total wash-out for Andy R., and he could earn some much needed points this year, since he doesn’t have much in the way of points to defend.

If anyone thinks that the pros play when they’re completely injury free, you’re crazy. When you do any sport for a long period of time, there are little pains and tinglings that you develop. Some are obviously more serious than others. Depending on the sport you do and the way you do it, it can make small ones more serious. When a player says he’s feeling 100%, it means he’s as fresh as can be based on his own standards of his body. In 2007, Federer skipped Halle because he had a groin injury. But at the FO, he played through it. And he didn’t play his best tennis by far in that tourny but he still played through this minor injury that he didn’t want to me worse. I really wanna know who taught Federer all these preventative measures because that person should go lecture Nadal. It’s a matter of whether the pain is significant enough to interfere with how well the player can play. Nadal has been taping his knees for a while because they obviously bother him. But they didn’t bother him enough to prevent him from playing well. Lately, they’ve gotten worse. Federer’s back hurt him at the end of the MC and in the AO. It wasn’t bad enough to prevent him from playing, but he felt bad enough at the end to take time off. Usually, unless you roll your ankle in the middle of a match, no injury just pops up, it’s always been there but it doesn’t always do as much damage as it might later.

von: in same article Andy R said last year at Wimbles his shoulder hadn’t healed and he really shouldn’t have played, explains poor showing, much better this year I feel, British commentators going wild about him. Hope that’s not a hex!
jane: alas put myself into Wimbledon ballot for fifth time but didn’t get tickets. Might go and queue first week. Never been to Queens, think I looked them up and thought them expensive. Next year perhaps. Trouble is you might get a day of rain and no refund! Same with Wimbles, although of course one court covered now. Have got myself to O2 which seemed a lot easier.

sensationalsafin said: “I really wanna know who taught Federer all these preventative measures because that person should go lecture Nadal.”

I hope it’s not do to poor prep/training on Nadal’s part because that’s something that’s completely preventable. One thing that’s not and should have been adjusted way back when he turned pro. What is really uncontrollable is genetics – maybe Federer just lucked out on this part of it. Partially it has to do with the different builds of both men (which can be due to a combo of both genetics and training). Rafa is a lot stockier and seems to carry much more muscle than Federer. A heavier body weight = more strain on the joints with every single step. Multiply that by the total number of steps in a match(style of plays a role in this significantly) and it can lead to pretty significant strain on the body.

That’s why Larry Stefanki is the most brilliant sports coach ever. I remember listening to the commentators once and they said, which I agree with 100%, that while everyone was telling Roddick to do this with his backhand and do that with his volleys, Stefanki comes along and says lose weight fatass. And now look at Roddick! For the first time since all his “rejuvenations”, Roddick is actually playing significantly better and smarter. And it’s very clear that he’s gotten a lot faster, atleast to me. If Nadal maybe shed some weight, it would take some strain off his knees and for someone’s who’s already faster than a speeding bullet, he could reach light speed!

“von: in same article Andy R said last year at Wimbles his shoulder hadn’t healed and he really shouldn’t have played, explains poor showing, much better this year I feel, British commentators going wild about him. Hope that’s not a hex!”

Thanks for mentioning this. In fact Andy’s shoulder was still bad at the USO, per Patrick McEnroe. You should tell that to Sean Randall, who wrote an article vis-a-vis,”Roddick, Blake and Sharapova Stink up Wimbledon” or very close in the wording and refused to believe that Roddick was still hurt. That said, here’s hoping Andy does better at Wimby this year. I still worried about Andy’s shoulder though. I’ve noticed since that Rome injury he hasn’t been hitting as many aces as he used to prior to the injury and that’s a huge tel-tale sign that something’s still not right.
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SS: Shedding the weight has definitely helped Roddick’s movement and I’d say it has also helped the knee tendinitis problem because he has that much less weight to haul around, which can hopefully yield positive results.

sensationalsafin, “If Nadal maybe shed some weight, it would take some strain off his knees”

I believe that he’s already done this, and for the precise reason you specify. It was commented on (and I think noticeable) at the AO. If I can find an article or blurb I’ll post it, but I am almost positive Nadal lost weight for the beginning of this season.

Regarding the predictable queries over the truth of Rafa’s fitness, I don’t think it matters. Of course it matters to him, but I mean it is not really the point when we try to assess his prospects at Wimbledon or wherever. Whether it’s worn-out knees, mental staleness or a curse from a bad fairy, Nadal has unquestionably not been at his best lately. And if he’s not at his best he will not win Wimbledon, and may not even get to the final. If he does, I’m furthermore not at all sure it’ll be Federer he plays.